Horan woke up and found himself lying against a boulder. Instead of lying in ankle-deep snow, part of the landscape where the remaining Greeks and Aztecs had gathered seemed to have warmed up, keeping the cold away. Horan’s hands, torso and feet were bandaged, and small stones with various inscribed symbols were embedded in the bandages. The bandages certainly weren’t helping much. Horan’s mouth tasted like death and his ribcage felt like it would cave in if he breathed in too deeply. In all honesty, he was slightly less dead than he’d been expecting.
The Aztecs milled around the warm space, many of them arguing with the remaining Greeks. Mark was propped up against a separate rock, his chest completely wrapped up in bandages and small, faintly glowing rocks. A good distance away, Omet was having their bandaged arm inspected by a green-eyed Aztec. Saralai was still lying on the ground, being watched intently by several Greeks.
Hurat stepped away from a minor Greek Primus, noticed Horan and began heading in his direction. As he approached, Horan noticed that he was emitting a faint orange glow and seemed to be radiating heat, keeping the snow away.
Hurat knelt next to Horan. “Good, you’re awake. We weren’t entirely sure if you would manage to pull through, you’ve been out for a full day.”
Horan looked down at his bandaged hands, then looked over at Mark. “Is Mark okay? I thought he died…”
Hurat shook his head. “He almost did. Omet filled us in on everything. Apparently, he sucked up the big storm guy’s power to just about survive a hit like the one he took. When you passed out from Amping so hard, he stopped the storm guy from finishing you off. If it wasn’t for our resident wizard stepping in, he probably wouldn’t have made it. You might not have, either.”
Horan looked down at his hands in silence.
Hurat looked around impatiently. “So, now that you’re both stable, do you think you can walk?”
Horan attempted to get up, but stopped when his entire body began to hurt. He tried to push himself upwards with his wind powers, but something was off. He could feel his soul exerting more power to lift himself than usual. It was if his very essence had been drained by that encounter. “I can fly… probably.”
Hurat nodded. “Good enough.” He stood up. “I want you and that friend of yours out of here by day’s end.”
Horan looked up at him weakly. “…What?”
“You know what I said. You aren’t welcome with the rest of us. Because of you showing up and bringing that storm guy with you, my entire Domain was put in danger and the Greeks have been almost wiped out. Then you go ahead and rope Omet into your plans. Have you seen their arm? It’s a wreck! You’re lucky I felt bad about leaving you to die and brought you back to have you healed. Now, I want you out of here before something else bad happens because of you.”
“But…” Horan painfully shifted his position. “Thel destroyed my whole Domain. I have nowhere to go.”
“And thanks to you and the guy you brought over, neither do the Greeks. And I’m not going to be roommates with the guy who almost got my entire family killed, who knows who else might be on your tail. Maybe you can find some other Domain who’ll take you in, but we won’t. You have until sundown before everyone else heads back to Mexico. You and your human friend aren’t coming with us. I’d recommend you make a plan now, your human won’t last long out here once my warmth aura’s gone. We salvaged what we could from the ruins of the tower and found some of your stuff. We’ll leave the human some food we found as well, it doesn’t seem like he has many options out here.”
Horan nodded solemnly. “We’ll be out of your hair as soon as we can.”
Hurat smiled sadly. “Thanks for not making this harder than it has to be.”
-
Mark came to a few hours later, right after the Aztecs and Greeks left. Horan sat next to him, watching him intently. Horan had already taken off his bandages and sat in his battered armour. “Oh, finally. Thought you’d never wake up.”
Mark’s thoughts began to clear, and he weakly raised an accusatory finger at Horan. “Oh, don’t you even start. I thought you were dead back there! I’m still trying to process the fact that I almost got you killed, I’m not emotionally ready to take sass yet!”
Horan waved him away. “Pff, don’t be a baby about it. I thought you died too, you’re not special.”
“Hey, me almost dying was necessary for the plan! I didn’t think you would start drying up like an old fruit!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Horan froze. “You dying was necessary for WHAT?!”
Mark nodded nervously. “I know you can’t manage without me. I figured that if you saw me in trouble, you’d get that kick you needed to finish Thel off. I just needed you to believe that I was in trouble, hence me not telling you my plan. As usual, I was right. And as an added bonus, I didn’t actually die! I see this as a win-win situation, personally.”
“Win-win? I would like to repeat the fact that I thought you were dead!”
“Hey, I thought you were going to die in my arms too! Should we just make a deal to not make each other freak out over the fact that we might be dying in front of them?”
Horan pouted. “Sure, fine. I’ll stop almost dying if it means you won’t pull another stunt like that again.”
“Sounds like a good idea.” Mark looked around. “So, did Omet go get help when we finished like I told them to? Where is everyone?”
“Yeah, they left.” Horan sighed. “They figured it was best not to have us around, since I led the unstoppable engine of senseless murder right to them. They left all our stuff with us though.” He pointed to a pile of Mark’s belongings a few feet away. His gun, his clothes and gas mask, the tattered remains of his dress suit and a few cans of soup were seemingly all he had to his name now.
Mark winced as he slowly sat up. “So, what? Are we just stranded out here, then?”
Horan shrugged. “Guess so. We could find some other Domain to take us in, but the closest one is thousands of miles away.”
Mark crawled over to his small pile of junk and began sorting through his stuff. “Then let’s get ready to move, what direction should we be going in?”
Horan watched Mark put his gun back in his pocket. “Actually, I was thinking we could… stay out here, at least for a while.”
Mark stopped, then turned to look at Horan quizzically. “Really? You’re passing up the chance to stay in some high-end mega-mansion so that you can live…” He gestured around at the snow-covered wasteland. “…out here?”
Horan held up his hands defensively. “Hey, I’m not saying this place is better, it really isn’t. It’s just that it’s a really long trip, and I’d like to spend a little time out here, maybe just for a few days. I wanna think about things.”
Mark crawled back to the boulder he had been laid against. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but… Things like your family?”
Horan nodded and sat next to Mark.
Mark was quiet for a long time. “…I don’t really know how that feels, losing all those people you’ve known for… thousands of years, but… I do know what it’s like to fail like that. To feel responsible for someone’s safety, and then to watch them get taken from you. I… don’t really know what I’m supposed to say, but I’m still here if you need me.”
Horan nodded slowly. “Thanks for that. But… honestly? I don’t think I’m as sad as I’m supposed to be.”
Mark looked over at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… I dunno. I’m bummed out and everything, but if anything, I’m more… disappointed? I guess? Mostly just with myself. Both with the part where I failed to protect them, like you said, but… also about the part where I’m not really as upset as I think I was expecting. Like, I spent all that time with those people, but… I don’t think I ever really got the chance, or even tried to get to know them. I mean, when I found out that most of my family was murdered, I was just upset about it for a while. But when I thought you died, I went completely ballistic, and I’ve only known you for about a month. So, I guess I’m disappointed that I never really connected with any of them. And now it’s too late. It’s like… ugh, I dunno. I’ve never had to unpack my feelings for someone like this before. I wish I could just dump it all out at once, like you.”
Mark waited for a while to speak. “Well… Only thing to do is to keep going. Feeling sad about all that won’t fix any of it. If you just keep moving on with your life, eventually you’ll be at peace with it. Works for me.” He slowly wobbled to his feet and reached out his hand for Horan to take. “I might not need food anymore after getting a bunch of magic Primus stuff glued to my soul, but I’m not taking those chances. Let’s get moving.”
Horan smiled weakly and took Mark’s hand. “Sounds like a plan, friend.”
Mark groaned as he pulled Horan to his feet. “Aw, you heard that? I was hoping we’d just forget about that part.”
“Oh, I’m never going to forget that.”
-
Thel lay dead in the snow, staring blankly at the stone-grey sky. His blood had soaked into the snow and hardened, forming a cushion of soft, powdery gold.
A small figure, wrapped in winter clothes, traipsed through the snow before coming to a stop in front of Thel’s body. The figure stared motionlessly at the corpse before jerkily squatting down to make eye contact with him.
“Cute. For a small-time nobody from Egypt, wiping out most of a Domain was definitely something.”
The figure yanked themselves upwards like a marionette, awkwardly standing up straight. “Well, old man, you did your part. Now to move on.” They looked over at the wreckage of the Greeks’ city. “And I’ve got a few ideas for what to do next.”